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May 27, 2013

Are you doing something (or writing something) remarkable?

As a writer you get two chances: you can have a remarkable ife and/or you can create remarkable characters and stories in the books or screenplays you write.

Some authors do both. They have an eventful life and write books that leave a vivid impression as well: Hemingway, Shakespeare (probably, given the little we know about his real life), Dickens, Twain.

Some authors lead quiet relativelymundane lives but their writing is full of color, action, and sometimes inspiration: J. D. Salinger, Harper Lee, Margaret Mitchell, Elmore Leondard.

What brought up this topic for me was reading about a young musician named Dotan Negrin. On his piano he has a sign with the motto, “You owe it to yourself
to do something remarkable with your life.”

He bought a van, loaded his upright piano into it, and with his dog as a companion drove
around the US and stopped and played for people. He started with only a $2 bill and
one gallon of gas. He began his journey in New York City and in 3 hours there made $152. The
trip was on!

It
wasn’t smooth sailing at every stop. For instance, Boston: “I parked my car in a 2 hour spot and pushed the
piano over to the 1st location. I played for 30 minutes and was told to leave
by the manager of the building in front of me. With an hour and a half more to
go I went to another location, got kicked out again, and then another location.
By the end of the 2 hours I had probably walked a half mile and was tired. I
loaded up the piano and grabbed some lunch.”

I
think “remarkable” comes in all sizes and doesn’t require anything as dramatic
as this. And, as I said at the start, as a writer you can also stay home and create a story as inspiring as his. What a wonderful advantage we have!

(If you'd like a little boost to your remarkable creativity, get my book, Creativity Now, published by Pearson and available from Amazon or your other favorite bookseller. It helps you get into the creative mindset, generate ideas, and turn those ideas into action. Plus its colorful and fun to read. Possibly even remarkable.)

Comments

As a writer you get two chances: you can have a remarkable ife and/or you can create remarkable characters and stories in the books or screenplays you write.

Some authors do both. They have an eventful life and write books that leave a vivid impression as well: Hemingway, Shakespeare (probably, given the little we know about his real life), Dickens, Twain.

Some authors lead quiet relativelymundane lives but their writing is full of color, action, and sometimes inspiration: J. D. Salinger, Harper Lee, Margaret Mitchell, Elmore Leondard.

What brought up this topic for me was reading about a young musician named Dotan Negrin. On his piano he has a sign with the motto, “You owe it to yourself
to do something remarkable with your life.”

He bought a van, loaded his upright piano into it, and with his dog as a companion drove
around the US and stopped and played for people. He started with only a $2 bill and
one gallon of gas. He began his journey in New York City and in 3 hours there made $152. The
trip was on!

It
wasn’t smooth sailing at every stop. For instance, Boston: “I parked my car in a 2 hour spot and pushed the
piano over to the 1st location. I played for 30 minutes and was told to leave
by the manager of the building in front of me. With an hour and a half more to
go I went to another location, got kicked out again, and then another location.
By the end of the 2 hours I had probably walked a half mile and was tired. I
loaded up the piano and grabbed some lunch.”

I
think “remarkable” comes in all sizes and doesn’t require anything as dramatic
as this. And, as I said at the start, as a writer you can also stay home and create a story as inspiring as his. What a wonderful advantage we have!

(If you'd like a little boost to your remarkable creativity, get my book, Creativity Now, published by Pearson and available from Amazon or your other favorite bookseller. It helps you get into the creative mindset, generate ideas, and turn those ideas into action. Plus its colorful and fun to read. Possibly even remarkable.)